Android Advisor 22 - 2016 UK

ANDROIDLATEST SMARTPHONES, TABLETS & WEARABLESADVISOR22ISSUEBEST NEWPHONES2016Most excitingsmartphonelaunches forthe new year + The best new smartwatches and fitness trackers reviewed

Contents 3 Welcome… News 4 Best new smartphones of 2016 How To 21 Get Android apps on Amazon Fire tablet 27 Transfer WhatsApp messages to a new smartphone Group Test 29 The best Polaroid and instant printers for your smartphone Reviews 35 Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 45 Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 59 BlackBerry Priv 71 Samsung Gear S2 80 Motorola Moto 360 2 84 Huawei Watch 92 Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse 99 nVidia Shield 108 Google Chromecast 2 Best Buy Charts 114 Our top phones, tablets, and more2  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Welcome... From the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge to the Sony Xperia Z6, HTC One M10, LG G5, OnePlus 3 and a brand new Android N operating system, 2016 is set to be a great year for smartphones. We look at some early rumours of the best phones coming this year overleaf. One of the most common New Year resolutions in 2016 will be to get fit, and technology can help you to keep track of your daily activities and progress. From page 71 onward we review Samsung’s latest Gear S2 smartwatch, the new Moto 360 2, the gorgeous Huawei Watch, and a fantastic-value activity tracker from Xiaomi. With smartphone cameras becoming more powerful with every generation, you may well have some fantastic photos you’ve shot languishing in the Gallery. We look at four great instant printers for your phone snaps on page 29. Last month we guessed that more than a few of you would find a brand new Amazon Fire tablet under your Christmas tree. If you did, and you’re wondering how to get standard Android apps from Google Play on it, wonder no more – we show you how on page 21. As always, we hope you’ve enjoyed this issue of Android Advisor. Feel free to send us your feedback via facebook.com/AndroidAdvisorUK or email [email protected]. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  3

News: Best new smartphones we can expect in 2016 The Android handsets we can’t wait to get our hands on Google Nexus 6 It’s very early days for new Nexus 6 rumours, but we’ve already heard a tip-off that the smartphone will once again be made by Huawei, and that it will feature a Snapdragon 820 chip, which is more powerful and energy efficient, and builds in support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.4  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Some other stuff we ‘know’ includes the factit will be the launch vehicle for the new Androidoperating system, Android N, and it will mostlikely arrive in October. This will be a large-screenphablet (the clue is in the ‘6’) and with supportfor USB-C now built into Android it will use thatformat for data transfer and charging.HTC One M10Now that we know the phone unveiled by HTC inOctober was an HTC One A9, we’re still expectingto see the HTC One M10 in March 2016. HTC One launches are traditionally held just priorto March’s Mobile World Congress show, and HTCchairwoman Cher Wang has said there would besignificant improvements in innovations and designfor the next flagship model next year. A key area in which HTC now lags behind its rivalsis the screen, with the M9 featuring a full- ratherthan Quad HD display. We’d expect to see some ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  5

key improvements here, as well as some general performance enhancements. LG G5 It’s not long since we welcomed the LG G4, but the LG G5 will be here by the end of spring 2016. Obviously very little is known so far about LG’s next flagship, but we have heard that the company is working with Irience to bring an iris scanner to the G5. And that’s something of a surprise, given that the LG G4 doesn’t even feature a fingerprint scanner. This isn’t brand-new tech, and in fact we have an UMI Iron phone in front of us with the same iris-scanning technology, but it will bring iris scanning in front of a UK audience for the first time. The new LG G5 is thought to have a larger- capacity battery – perhaps up to 4000mAh – and the company is expected to retain the ability to remove, and also wirelessly charge, the battery.6  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

LG G Flex 3The LG G Flex 2 was an interesting smartphone,with its curved form-factor and material that wouldautomatically heal scratches. Mark 3 should bemore interesting still, with a rumoured metalbody and premium design. Expect the QualcommSnapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM inside, plus32GB of (expandable via microSD) storage. Leakssuggest there will be a 3500mAh battery, afingerprint scanner,and 20.7/8Mp cameras.Although the LG G Flex3 has not yet beenofficially confirmedby the company, weexpect it to make anappearance in early2016 – probably at CES2016 – with a price taga touch over £500. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  7

LG V10 LG has unveiled what looks to be the LG G4 Pro, except it’s known as the LG V10. It’s a dual-screen Quad-HD smartphone with two front-facing selfie cameras, a manual mode for video and support for microSD up to 2TB. Other highlights include 64GB of built-in storage, a 3000mAh removable battery, a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 chip with 4GB of RAM and a 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC. It’s not yet been confirmed when the LG V10 will go on sale in the UK, although we hope it will be late 2015 rather than early 2016. Nextbit Robin Things on Kickstarter are often a complete load of rubbish but the Nextbit Robin is a success story which we’re looking forward to seeing in the flesh.8  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

The firm was founded in 2012 and its keystaff have been involved with Android sincethe beginning. Collectively, they’ve worked onlaunching phones including the G1, Nexus andHTC One M8 and M8. Due to arrive February 2016 with a price tag of$399, the ‘cloud-first’ smartphone has a differentapproach to most other Android devices on themarket. There is on-board storage but the phonewill automatically optimise by doing things likemoving unused apps and photos to the cloud. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  9

OnePlus 2 Mini Despite having only recently announced the OnePlus X, a smaller OnePlus smartphone than the company’s flagship OnePlus 2, there are rumours that we’ll soon see a third OnePlus smartphone. This new OnePlus phone will be smaller than the OnePlus X, but with performance to match the OnePlus 2, so we assume it will be priced somewhere in between the two – that’s if it ever sees the light of day. The rumours of a OnePlus 2 Mini phone stem from an entry in the GFXBench database of an unknown OnePlus device with a 4.6in screen (the OnePlus X has a 5in screen and the OnePlus 2 a 5.5in screen). That’s a full-HD (1808p panel), and other specs include a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB10  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

of storage and 12- and 5Mp cameras. In commonwith the OnePlus 2 there’s no NFC.OnePlus 3OnePlus has spoiled us in 2015 with both the 2 andX, but we’re already hearing whispers about a 3.The image pictured here is a render, and may belittle more than an artist’s impression of what they’dlike to see. Still if it’s true, there’s no sign of thefingerprint scanner previously built into the homebutton, which may mean OnePlus is going down theSony route by building it into the power button, orit could mean it’s dropped it, possibly in favour ofsomething more radical such as iris-scanning. Early leaked specifications include the QualcommSnapdragon 820 chip that will feature heavily in2016 flagships, offering improved performance ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  11

and battery efficiency, plus support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and Adreno 530 graphics. And OnePlus will allegedly continue to fit a 1080p full- HD screen, which suggests to us the OnePlus 3, like the One and 2 before it, will be a great-value phone (probably under £300) with high-end specs and a mid-range price. Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge In March at Mobile World Congress we will see the new Galaxy S7 revealed. In the S6, Samsung turned its back on Qualcomm and instead used one of its own Exynos processors; while it’s possible that we could see a continuation of this trend, we know Samsung has already been testing out the Snapdragon 820. In fact, Samsung is thought to be working alongside Qualcomm in12  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

manufacturing the 820 with 3GHz Kyro CPU cores.This also means the new S7 could see Adreno 530graphics and LP-DDR4 RAM – possibly as much as6GB, although 4GB is more likely. We don’t expect to see anything new in thealready very good screen, so expect a 5.1in QuadHD SuperAMOLED panel. The fingerprint scannerand heart-rate monitor found in the S6 will also likelyfeature. The Samsung Galaxy S7 will come withAndroid 6.0 Marshmallow and TouchWiz.Sony Xperia Z6Sony has had a rough ride in the smartphonemarket this year and while it will hope the XperiaZ5 range will be a big success, its thoughts mustnow be firmly with the Xperia Z6. There’s little inthe way of leaked information on the phone but itdoes seem that Sony will stop its six-month refreshcycle meaning the Xperia Z6 will arrive aroundSeptember2016. We’reexpecting asimilar offeringto the Z5 withwaterproofingand a fingerprintscanner butwe hope it willshake thingsup a bit withsomethingdifferent topast phones.Marie Brewis ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  13

News: Steve Ballmer thinks future is Android Another Windows Android phone could be a possibility Windows 10 Mobile has barely launched, and Microsoft’s former chief executive is already burying it, though in doing so, he may be pointing toward a better way forward for the firm. At Microsoft’s recent shareholder conference, Bloomberg reporter Dina Bass was in the right place at the right time. She picked up former chief executive – and still shareholder – Steve Ballmer criticising chief executive Satya Nadella and other Microsoft management. One of Microsoft’s faults, according to Ballmer? Ignoring Android apps. There really isn’t much news here, just a fraction of a quote:14  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

“Ballmer also criticised Nadella’s answer to anaudience member questioning the lack of key apps,like one for Starbucks, on the company’s WindowsPhone. Nadella responded by citing the company’splan to appeal to Windows developers by allowingthem to write universal applications that work oncomputers, phones and tablets, targeting a largerarray of devices than just Microsoft’s handsets thathave just a single-digit share of the mobile market.‘That won’t work,’ Ballmer commented as Nadellaspoke. Instead, the company needs to enableWindows Phones ‘to run Android apps,’ he said.” Was he right? Possibly. But how does Microsoftconvince Android developers to port apps toWindows? It seems like another Android phonemight be one answer.Apps don’t seem to be working outMicrosoft’s app store clearly lags behind itscompetition. True, the list of the most downloadedfree mobile Windows Phone apps reads like a who’swho of the web: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Twitter,and more, especially when you compare themagainst the most downloaded free apps on Android,for example. But look a little closer, and severalapps, including Instagram and Twitter, are eitherlisted as beta apps or are simply nowhere near thequality of apps offered on other platforms. It just gets worse when you consider that gamessuch as Plants vs. Zombies, Terraria and Need forSpeed are all available for Android, but not WindowsPhone. Both Android and iOS simply generate morerevenue for developers than Windows phones ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  15

do, and Windows Phone’s miniscule 2.2 percent market share certainly isn’t helping. Most developers neglect or outright ignore Windows Phone as a result, and fewer apps only mean fewer would-be Windows Phone buyers. It’s a vicious circle. It’s not clear exactly what Ballmer meant by his comments, though. Was he implying that Windows Phones need to run apps that were originally designed for Android, and then ported over to Windows? In that case, he’s probably aware that Project Astoria, the Windows ‘bridge’ tool designed to allow developers to port Android apps to Windows, has reportedly been put on hold. If developers are going to run Android apps on Windows, they’ll need to take their iOS port – if they have one – and then port that code over to Windows with the complementary ‘Islandwood’ bridge. However, at the time of writing, Islandwood was still listed as a ‘0.1 Preview’, which seems to be about as far away from a piece of finished code as you can get. An Android fork? At this point, Microsoft has several other options. One of these clearly is its current strategy: seed as many apps and services on to other platforms as possible, both as a revenue-generating opportunity (Office 365 subscriptions) and also to woo as many customers as possible to Windows. As Microsoft’s financial results indicate, the bulk of the company’s revenue still flows from Windows, Office, and other enterprise services; once you start using the Outlook app for iOS; for example, you might be interested in signing up for more robust16  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

collaborativefeatures thatMicrosoft’s officesuite offers. Ballmer’s crypticcomment couldalso imply that hethinks an emulationlayer might bethe best bet. Wehave a hard timebelieving that’sthe case, thoughBlackBerry triedemulation withBB10, reportedlysomewhatsuccessfully.(BlackBerry nowmanufacturesAndroid phones,however.) The other option? As strange as it sounds, aWindows-branded Android phone might not be sofar-fetched. You can already jury-rig a ‘WindowsAndroid phone’ by using Cortana, Bing, Outlook,Skype, the Office apps and more into an (almost) allMicrosoft, all the time creation. But given that Android is an open operatingsystem, there’s really nothing stopping Microsoftfrom actually crafting its own fork of the Android OS,as long as they adhere to the correct open-sourcelicenses. Google’s Play Store and related servicesrequire their own agreements and licensing, but ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  17

Microsoft wouldn’t have to tap into that, as Amazon’s own Fire OS also sidesteps those restrictions. In other words, it could use its own Microsoft Store for users to launch and download apps. The problem, as Greenbot’s Jason Cross tells us, is that many Android apps use Google Play services, which means that either Microsoft would either have to exclude those apps, or else ask developers to craft special versions for Microsoft, though that brings Microsoft right back to square one in a way. But where attracting users to Microsoft’s apps and services without luring them to its platforms is a customer-facing philosophy, the company could continue pursuing a similar strategy with developers, providing app makers with back end APIs to its services. It’s important to note that we’ve gone down this road before. Shortly before Microsoft acquired Nokia’s device business, the Finnish company had developed the Nokia X: an Android powered phone with an array of Windows-like tiles. Stephen Elop, the chief executive of Nokia who joined Microsoft as part of the acquisition, promised that the Nokia X would live on. It didn’t, and Elop left in the summer. So far, there hasn’t been the faintest hint that Microsoft is developing its own Android operating system or phone, though. And with Microsoft already hurling billions of dollars at its own Windows Phone and device development, it may be that management will balk at spending more. But the nagging question remains: if Microsoft has hitched its wagon to ‘cloud first, mobile first’, you need a viable mobile platform to ride. And isn’t that increasingly looking like Android? Martin Hachman18  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

News:EE Power Bar recallEE discovers that its Power Bars pose a safety risk Following a recall of a batch of its Power Bars back in August, EE has now issued a recall for all of its EE Power Bars because there have been a number of further incidents of severe overheating that could cause a fire safety risk or burns. What to do with your EE Power Bar On 5 August 2015, EE published a web page that explained that was is recalling some of its Power Bars after it was discovered that they aren’t safe. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  19

The recall was originally limited to a particular batch of Power Bars but since the recall there have been several further incidents that have led EE to recall every single one of the Power Bars it gave its customers for free earlier this year. “We’re recalling all EE Power Bars,” EE said on its website on 16 December 2015. “This is just a precaution, but we want to make sure all our customers are safe.” “We are taking this action because we are aware of a very small number of further incidents where Power Bars have overheated in circumstances that could cause a fire safety risk.” EE said that you should stop using your Power Bar immediately and return it to your local EE Store. If you’re unable to get to an EE Store, EE recommends calling its information hotline on 0800 079 0305. How to get your £20 EE voucher It’s annoying, yes, but safety is the most important thing here so we strongly advise taking your Power Bar to EE if you can. The good news is that, when you return the Power Bar to an EE Store you will be given a £20 voucher if you an eligible EE customer. You’ll be able to use that voucher at accessories.ee.co.uk. Swap program suspended Of course, in addition to the recall, EE has also suspended the swap program until further notice. We’ll update this article with further information as it emerges. EE says “At the moment we are fully focused on the recall and we will make further announcements soon.” Chris Martin20  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

How To:Get Android appson Amazon Fire tabletPlus, get Plants vs Zombies 2 on an Amazon Fire Usually you can install an Android app on an Amazon Fire tablet simply by downloading its .apk file from the web (a Google search will bring up several sources, or we’ll explain how to ensure you have the latest version below), enabling the ability to install apps from unknown sources in the Settings/Security menu (Settings/Applications on older Fire tablets), and then tapping on the downloaded file to install it (if you have parental ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  21

controls set up you’ll need to enter your password before you can enable app installation from unknown sources). However, it’s not nearly as simple with Plants vs Zombies 2 and other such games, which tie into Google Play Games to save game data and make it available to all your Android devices. In the following walkthrough we’ll explain how to get Plants vs Zombies 2 on an Amazon Fire tablet. Get Plants vs Zombies 2 on Amazon Fire tablets Note that without rooting Plants vs Zombies 2 will work only on Amazon Fire tablets running Amazon Fire OS 5, such as the new £49 Amazon Fire 7 tablet. When we tried the following workaround on an Amazon Fire HD 6 Kids Edition running Fire OS 4.5.5, the game was unable to locate the Obb data files it required to run, despite us downloading them and placing them in the usual folder. We couldn’t find a way to rectify this, but if you have a solution please post it in the comments below this article. You can check which version of Fire OS you are running in the Settings, Device Options, System Updates menu. Also check here whether any new updates are available for your Fire tablet. We have reached out to Amazon to find out whether older Fire tablets will be upgraded to Fire OS 5 and are awaiting a response. In the meantime, the below walkaround should help you play games that tie into Google Play Games but don’t need to download additional resources before you can play them. It will be very much a process of trial and error, however, to see what works and what doesn’t.22  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

In order to complete the following walkthroughyou’ll need a PC (we’re using a Mac) to which youcan download the necessary files, unzip them,and then transfer them to your Fire tablet using aMicro-USB cable. Step 1. Download the ES FileExplorer to your tablet, which is freefrom the Amazon AppStore.Step 2. Configure your Fire tablet toallow the installation of apps fromunknown sources. You can do this bygoing to Settings, Security and turningon ‘Apps from Unknown sources’. If youhave parental controls set up you willneed to enter your password to do so. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  23

Step 3. On your PC, download the following files: Both the Plants vs Zombies 2 .apk file and Obb data. You can download a version of this from numerous websites, but if you want to ensure you have the latest version you can download it directly from Google Play. To do so you’ll need to be using the Google Chrome browser on your computer. Download an APK downloader extension from the Chrome store. With this in place you can go to the Plants Vs Zombies 2 download page on the desktop version of the Google Play Store (tinyurl.com/jm7xx3z) and you’ll see a new ‘Download APK’ button beside the usual ‘Install’ button. Tap this to download both the .apk file and the Obb data.24  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

The next file you need is the Google AppsMinimal Edition zip file from XDA-Developers(tinyurl.com/nfrek7n). Once the zip file hasdownloaded, extract the following items fromthe System/priv-app folder: GoogleBackUpTransport.apk; GooglePartnerSetup.apk;GoogleServiceFramework.apk; GoogleLoginService.apk; and GoogleOneTimeInitializer.apk. Add theseto a new folder along with the Plants Vs Zombies 2.apk file and Obb data. And finally from UpToDown the Google Playstore (tinyurl.com/nbzuhoa), Google Play Services(tinyurl.com/zd8j96s) and Google Play Games(tinyurl.com/onnzfak). Add these to the same folderas the earlier downloaded files.Step 4. Plug the Fire tabletinto your PC over USB and,with the exception of theObb data, copy all the abovefiles to the Downloads folder.Step 5. Now find theAndroid/obb folder on theFire and copy over the Obbdata. Note that you needto include the containingfolder that was downloadedto your PC, so in our casewe ended up with thefollowing file path: ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  25

Android/obb/com.ea.game.pvz2_row-130-obbs/ main.130.com.ea.game.pvz2_row.obb. Step 6. Open the ES File Explorer app on your Fire tablet, swipe in from the right and then select the Downloads folder. In the order that they are listed here go through each file one by one, tap on them to launch the installer and follow the instructions to install them on your Fire tablet. Once you have installed the Google Play Store app you should also launch it and sign into your Google account (note that you won’t be able to use the Play Store, but it needs to be running on your device). Having done all this you can launch the Plants vs Zombies 2 app, which should proceed to download resources, sign into your Google Play Games account, and be available to play on your Amazon Fire tablet. Marie Brewis26  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

How To:Transfer WhatsAppmessages to a new phoneAdd old WhatsApp messages to a new handset WhatsApp is a tremendously useful way to keep in touch with people all over the world, pretty much for free. There is a rather large problem that users can encounter though, and that is when moving on to a new phone their conversations don’t come with them. This is due to the way that the app stores content locally rather than on web servers. If you still have your old phone to hand, and haven’t switched from Android ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  27

to iOS or vice versa, then it’s still possible to salvage those chats and move them safely to a new home. In this guide, we’ll take you through the short process of copying and restoring your digital missives. Using an SD card If you have an Android phone with an SD card, then the process for transferring your chat history is reasonably straightforward. Open the app, then tap the Menu icon then go to Settings > Chats and calls > Backup Chats. This will now create a backup on your SD card, which you can then swap into your new handset. Reinstall WhatsApp on your replacement device (with the SD card inserted) and the app should spot your backup and automatically restore the chat history. Using a PC Those phones without an SD card (and there are more of them now) can still move their chat history, but it will need a PC to make it happen. Attach the USB charging cord to the phone and plug the other end into your PC. Windows should automatically install any drivers you need, and then you can find the phone in the This PC section of File Explorer. Now look through the phone storage until you find the WhatsApp folder, then copy it on to your PC hard drive. Eject the phone, then connect your handset and move the WhatsApp folder onto its internal storage. Eject the phone, reinstall WhatsApp, and when you confirm your number the backup should be recognised and you can restore it. With this done you should now have all your past conversations on your new Android phone. Martyn Casserly28  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Group Test:Print from your phoneThe best Polaroid and instant printers for your handset Fujifilm Instax Share Smartphone Printer SP-1 Fujifilm’s Instax Share Smartphone Printer SP-1 is one of the better-known instant printers that let you bypass a PC and print Polaroid-style images directly from your smartphone. You simply connect to it using Wi-Fi as if it were a wireless router. The Instax Share is available from Amazon UK for £108.99, or you can buy it in a bundle with 10- (£124.99) or 20 shots (£144.95). When the photo paper runs out, current Amazon UK pricing is 10 ‘Mini sheets for £12.89 and 10 ‘Wide’ sheets for £9.95, ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  29

or twin bundles for £14.49 and £13.99 respectively. You can choose from a variety of templates, from standard White to Candy Pop, Comic, Dalmatian, Rainbow, Shiny Star, Stained Glass and Wedding. As with the original Polaroid cameras on which the idea is based, this means each photo is reasonably expensive – your cheapest option (the 20x Wide) works out at 70p per photo. At least with these type of instant printers you get to choose only your favourite pictures, rather than snapping away and hoping the results are decent. As well discover in the following slides, there are cheaper instant printers. However, what we particularly like about the Instax Share is the various templates that let you add captions with a message or the time and date, weather or even an Instagram or Facebook status. Printing from your smartphone with the Instax Share printer is easy – download the free app from Google Play or the Apple App Store, choose an image from your photo gallery or social media, add a template and edit as required, then hit print. The Instax Share is easily portable at 101.6x42x122.5mm and 253g. It requires two CR2 batteries that should be good for around 100 shots, or you can run it from a mains adaptor (although one is not supplied). LEDs at the front let you see at a glance when you’re running low on power or paper.30  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Polaroid Zip Instant PhotoprinterWhat better company to revolutionise the Polaroidcamera concept than Polaroid itself? Polaroid’s ZipInstant Photoprinter is a similar setup to the InstaxShare from Polaroid, connecting to your phone viaBluetooth (NFC is available for faster pairing) toprint your favourite photos on-demand. The Zip printer itself is a similar price to theInstax Share, at £109.99 from Amazon UK (in black,blue or red), but photo paper is cheaper. You canget a pack of 50 2x3in sheets from Amazon UK for£24.99, which means each shot worksout at 50p – 20p cheaper thanwith the Instax. This photo paper isknown as Zink,which is shortfor zero ink.Polaroidsays its ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  31

photo paper produces photo-quality, full-colour output that won’t smudge. Plus, it has a sticky back, so you won’t need Sellotape to pin your favourite selfies to your mirror. Where the Polaroid Zip falls down against the Instax Share is in its lack of customisation options. Whereas you can edit images, add templates and choose from a variety of custom photo papers, with the Zip what you see is what you print. But that may be all you need. The Zip is smaller and more portable than the Instax Share at 23x74x120mm and 186g, although both are pretty mini as printers go. It’s rechargeable battery should be good for around 25 shots. Prynt Case The Prynt Case is a slightly different approach to the instant smartphone printer, and acts as a case into which you slot your smartphone to produce a photo in under 30 seconds. This does mean, however, that it’s not available for all phones - Prynt currently lists white and black models for the iPhone 5/5c/5s/6/6s and Samsung Galaxy S4/S5 on its site. The Prynt Case is currently available to preorder and should ship in mid-January 2016. It costs $139 and you get 10 sheets of photo paper; additional packs of 50 sheets cost $25, which means prints work out at half a dollar (around 33p) each. Standard shipping is an additional $12, but prices don’t include VAT, so you’ll need to add 20 percent if you’re shipping to the UK. This means the printer will set you back $178.80, or around £118.50. Like the Instax Share it has a companion app that lets you add frames, filters, stickers and text, and32  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

every time you take a photo the app records a shortvideo and uploads it to the cloud. After the photohas been printed your friends can use the Pryntapp to see the story behind the photo. And like thePolaroid Zip it uses Zink technology to produce high-quality, smudge-resistant photo prints. If you have a compatible phone the Prynt Case isthe most easily portable solution here, and it has aninternal battery that handily charges over Micro-USB.Canon Selphy CP910The Canon Selphy CP910 is a proper compact photoprinter rather than something designed simply forprinting from your phone, and as such it can printphotos directly from an SD card, USB memorystick or camera via PictBridge, a PC or laptop viaUSB, and it can wirelessly connect to your phoneover the Canon Easy-PhotoPrint app (also supports ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  33

AirPrint for Apple phones). It’s cheaper than the dedicated smartphone printers, with larger prints (available in around 27 seconds) that should last 100 years and lower running costs, but it’s also bulkier at 178x127x60.5mm and 810g – you’re unlikely to sling this one in a handbag. A battery pack, which lasts around 36 prints, is optional, but an AC power supply is included. The Canon Selphy is currently £76 at Amazon UK. An ink and paper set with 108 sheets of 6x4in photo paper costs £23.56 (also from Amazon), which means photos work out at 22p each. You can also buy photo paper for credit-card- and Passport-photo-sized prints. Unlike the other compact photo printers here a 2.7in colour TFT screen is built-in, making it easier to browse to and select your images to print. The Canon uses a dye- sublimation thermal transfer printing system, and produces prints at 300dpi. Marie Brewis34  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Review:Sony Xperia Z5 PremiumBeen holding out for a 4K phone? The wait is over£629 inc VAT • sonymobile.com/global-en One of the surprise announcements of IFA 2015, back in September, was Sony’s Xperia Z5 Premium which is the first 4K smartphone to make the light of day. After some proper time with the new phone, here’s our full and in-depth Sony Xperia Z5 Premium review. Also announced at IFA 2015 by Sony was the Sony Xperia Z5 and the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact. Sony faces tough competition in the smartphone market and the unique selling point of the Premium is something which it helps will differentiate it from rivals such as Apple and Samsung. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  35

Price As you might expect from the world’s first 4K phone, the price of the Xperia Z5 Premium lives up to its name. Sony’s official price for the handset is a whopping £629. This makes it one of the most expensive phones on the market along with the iPhone 6s Plus which costs up to £789 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ which can set you back up to £719 – the Z5 Premium doesn’t even include headphones either. You’re better off buying the Xperia Z5 Premium elsewhere as Clove is selling it for £600 with free accessories while Amazon has it for a fairly reasonable £576. Design This is the most recognisable of the Z5 range with since it’s the largest of the three and, oh yeah, it’s shiny mirrored finish. The device will be available in Chrome, Gold and Black options and we took a look at the very bling Chrome option. It might make the device look fancy and you can check your makeup or do your hair my looking in the back, but you’ll be forever polishing it to get rid of fingerprint marks and smudges which appear the first time you pick it up. Things go from gleaming to grubby in a matter of seconds so we prefer the frosted glass of the other Z5 phones. If you can bear owning a phone this shiny then the Z5 Premium has the same design features as its smaller counterparts. This means its waterproof with only a flap to cover the slot which houses the SIM-card and microSD card slot. It also means the Z5 has a new power button so the iconic round36  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

one is gone and has been replaced with a flatrectangle. Sounds a bit boring but it’s because itnow has a fingerprint scanner built-in. We’ve triedit out and it’s fast, accurate and is placed on thephone better than any other we’ve seen exactlywhere your thumb naturally lies. At 7.8mm, the Premium is a little thicker thanthe regular Xperia Z5 but it’s not that which we’reworried about. The phone weighs 180g whichis pretty colossal and more than other phoneswith the same screen size – even the brick-likeOnePlus 2 is lighter at 175g so this is a seriousdrawback of the Z5 Premium. We can understand why Sony has kept the samerectangular shape for the Premium to match theother Z5 phones, but at this size it makes for a ratheruncomfortable and unwieldy experience. ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  37

A smaller problem is that the volume rocker is situated below the power button which makes it pretty awkward to use. That’s the same as previous Xperia handsets but it’s lower down this time around. As usual, one of the key selling points is that the Z5 Premium is dust- and waterproof to an IP68 rating which is great to see. There is only one flap, too, making life a lot easier. 4K display Let’s jump straight into the most exciting section of the Xperia Z5 Premium’s spec sheet which is that 4K screen. Sony has skipped Quad HD entirely and is the first manufacturer to bring us a resolution on a phone which most people don’t even have on their TV or computer monitor yet. That’s right, the Xperia Z5 Premium offers a 2160x3840 resolution on a 5.5in, meaning a jaw dropping pixel density of 806ppi. That beats the Galaxy S6 by a long way which has touts 577ppi. Sure this phone has some serious top trump credentials in this department and people at the pub might not even believe that it’s Ultra HD but the numbers on the spec sheet make up a very small part of the full picture here. In comparison with the regular Xperia Z5, the premium model doesn’t have as much brightness available and colours are slightly less punchy – the latter is more a personal thing and I actually prefer it a bit more laid back. You might be surprised to hear that the Xperia Z5 Premium is actually using a Full HD resolution the vast majority of the time so you’re not getting what it’s capable is of. It’s not quite false advertising38  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

but it’s certainly a misnomer if you ask us. There’sa good reason for this and you can probably guesswhat it is. Driving all those pixels 100 percent of timewould result in a serious dip in both performanceand battery life. The other reason is that Android 5.1Lollipop doesn’t support 4K resolution. The latest, 6.0 Marshmallow, does and anupdate is coming but even then it’s designed forup to 640ppi which Google describes as ‘extra-extra-extra-high density’ which is a fair way off thePremium’s 806ppi. When the update does arrive, wedoubt Sony will simply remove the downscaling. So when exactly do you get 4K on the only 4Kphone around? Well not often; you need to openSony’s own Album, and Video apps which will ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  39

display content in the full resolution. This means you’re most likely to see 4K when viewing photos and videos you’ve captured with the phone. Third party services such as Netflix and YouTube have 4K content but this isn’t what you’ll get on the phone. Our conclusion on the 4K screen of the Xperia Z5 Premium is that thing can look great on it with excellent amounts of detail. However, it’s extremely limited and really not that different compared to Quad HD phones. At the moment, 4K on a phone is simply a mismatch and we think the need to downscale proves this. Hardware So is there anything else other than the 4K screen to tempt you to buy the Premium model over the other Z5 phones on the hardware side? Well not really, the Xperia Z5 Premium also has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage and a microSD card slot for adding up to 200GB more which is the same line-up as the regular Z5 – the Compact is only different with 2GB of RAM. As you can see below the phone benchmarked almost identical numbers to the regular Z5 due to the downscaling of the resolution. We’ve found the phone to be smooth and responsive in use. The battery is larger, since there’s more space for it, but battery life is similar to the Z5. The 3430mAh capacity provided five hours and 49 minutes with a score of 3491 in our Geekbench 3 test. Not a bad result but still two or three hours behind the leaders. As you would expect from a phone which costs over £600, you get a lot of the latest tech on-board.40  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Geekbench 3GFXBench ManhattanGFXBench T-RexSunSpider** lower is betterThe Z5 Premium features dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi,Bluetooth 4.1 with aptX, NFC, GPS and support for4G LTE networks. Sony has opted against a Type-C reversible USBport for now but that’s not the end of the world at the ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  41

moment. The Micro-USB port is at least waterproof without a flap but we’d like to see wireless charging included for such a high-end phone. Like the other Z5 phones, a big addition is the fingerprint scanner. But we don’t mean in size as it’s somehow squeezed into the power button on the size. The scanner is quick and accurate and has the best placement on the device we’ve experienced. It’s even easy to use with the Z5 Premium on a flat surface without picking it up. It’s also got the same camera which is a new 23Mp sensor with some improvements too such as faster auto focus ( just 0.03 seconds according to Sony), x5 digital zoom without a loss of quality and the best low light performance. We love that Sony has kept the physical two- stage camera button which makes photography that bit easier and feels more professional. The focus42  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

is amazingly fast and is easily one of the quickestwe’ve seen helping you shoot more freely. Be default the camera shoots at 8Mp, notthe full 23Mp, so that the extra pixels can beused for oversampling. We’re not convinced bythe Clear Image Zoom feature and while lowlight performance is good, the lack of opticalstabilisation is a big omission here and somethingwe’d expect Sony to offer. The camera is very good but just not as good asSony makes out. At the front is a 5Mp camera whichis about as good as you might expect – good butnothing out of the ordinary.SoftwareThere are new Nexus phones running Android6.0 Marshmallow now but the Z5 Premium comespreloaded with version 5.1 Lollipop. As mentionedearlier, an upgrade will come but we can only reviewit like it is now. Sony hasn’t really done much on the softwareside so it’s really about the design and hardwarehere. Previous users, and even those coming from adifferent Android manufacturer will feel at home. As with previous Xperia phones the user interfaceis fairly vanilla so Sony has decided to use the stockAndroid Lollipop notification bar and recent appsmenu. But it does add all the Sony style like normalincluding wallpapers, widgets, floating apps andown-brand apps like Walkman and PlayStation. All the Sony Xperia Z5 phones come with XperiaLounge Gold access but they come preloaded withsome third party apps like OfficeSuite, AVG, Dropboxand Facebook. These do take up space and we’d ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  43

rather choose what to install but Sony does allow you to uninstall them so it’s not so bad. Verdict A 4K smartphone might seem like something you want but you really don’t need it and it’s an expensive card to play in order to trump your mates. The device is also big, uncomfortable and brash. Hardware is the same as the regular Z5 so it really comes down to the screen, which doesn’t even display 4K much of the time. We strongly recommend steering clear of the Premium, which is this year’s most unnecessary phone and sticking to the regular Z5 or one its alternatives. Chris Martin Specifications • 5.5in 4K IPS (2160x3840, 806ppi) • Android 5.1 Lollipop • 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 • Adreno 430 GPU • 3GB RAM • 32GB internal storage • MicroSD slot (up to 200GB) • 23Mp rear camera AF with LED Flash • 5Mp front camera • Video recording at up to 2160p • Wi-Fi up to 11.ac • Bluetooth • NFC • 4G LTE Cat 6 • Nano-SIM • 3430mAh battery • 76x154x7.8mm • 180g44  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

Review:Xiaomi Redmi Note 3Xiaomi’s all-metal budget phablet is a stunner£118 inc VAT • mi.com/en Xiaomi’s phones aren’t officially sold in the UK, but while the brand may not be well known to us Brits it’s bigger than Apple and Samsung in China. Redmi is the company’s budget smartphone line-up, and the Note 3 sits at the top of the series as an all-metal Android phablet with a fantastic design and decent performance. We review the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. The user experience we received with the Xiaomi Note 3 is what we were hoping for with the Xiaomi ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  45

Mi 4C. Unlike that phone, the software hadn’t been altered before the Note 3 was shipped to us, and so we got exactly the experience Xiaomi intended. That’s not to say it is a great experience out of the box for UK users, which is largely down to the fact that Xiaomi phones don’t come preinstalled with Google apps and much of the language in the preinstalled software is Chinese. But these things are easy to tweak, and we had our Xiaomi Note 3 up and running as we would any other UK Android phone within minutes. We’ll explain how we did so in the Software section of this review. As we mentioned, Xiaomi doesn’t officially sell its phones in the UK, but you can buy them from third-party suppliers such as GearBest. Indeed, GearBest supplied our review sample of the Xiaomi Note 3, a gold handset with 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. To buy this phone from GearBest today you’ll pay £118.27, although it’s also worth considering the Note 3 variant with 32GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM, given that there’s no support for microSD and performance should be better. The 32GB Note 3 costs £138 from GearBest. (Bear in mind that although shipping to the UK is free, you are liable to paying import duty from China.) One of the things to watch out for when buying a phone from China is that it is supported by your network. In the UK, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 operates on only the UK 4G LTE bands 3 and 7, which means band 20 (or the 800MHz) frequency used by O2 and piggyback networks such as giffgaff is not supported. Should your network be supported, however, the Note 3 offers 4G connectivity on46  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

both of its Dual-SIM slots (this is a dual-standbyphone that accepts two Micro-SIM cards). Otherconnectivity options are excellent, too, covering thelatest 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, an IR blaster,GPS and GLONASS, although there’s no NFC. Despite being a budget smartphone, the XiaomiRedmi Note 3 has some capable hardware inside,with the 2GHz MediaTek Helio X10 chip, a PowerVRRogue 6200 GPU and a huge 4000mAh battery.Even the 2GB of RAM model was capable of rawprocessing performance faster than that of everyphone we’ve tested bar the Samsung Galaxy Note5 and S6 Edge, although it fell down somewhat inour graphics tests. As Xiaomi’s first all-metal Redmi Note, the 3 isa gorgeous in its gold incarnation (also availablein silver and dark grey) with a sandblasted smoothouter shell and 5.5in full-HD display. A fingerprintscanner is fitted to the rear, alongside a 13Mp ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  47

camera with two-tone flash. Around the front you get a 5Mp selfie camera. The MIUI 7 Android 5 Lollipop-based operating system is well regarded in China, if not ideally suited to UK users out of the box. As we’ve said it’s quite possible to change this setup, but it’s perhaps not something novice Android users would be comfortable in doing. But that’s all that would stop us thoroughly recommending the Redmi Note 3 as one of the best budget Android phones money can buy. Let’s find out why. Price As we pointed out in the introduction, it’s not possible to buy Xiaomi phones directly from the company in the UK, although you can buy them from third-party unofficial channels. Our review sample came from GearBest, and is the gold model with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. This Note 3 costs £118.27 with free worldwide shipping, although you should note that on shipping it to the UK you may have to pay import duty, and other pitfalls may be involved. GearBest also sells the more advanced variant of the Redmi Note 3, which has 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. This phone costs £138. Both Redmi Note 3s are available in gold, silver and dark grey. Design Wow. That’s what every single member of the PC Advisor editorial team said when we took the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 out of its box. We’ve been waiting to get our hands on a Xiaomi phone for48  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22

ages, and following the disappointment that wasthe Mi 4C the Note 3 had a lot of making up to do.Fortunately, it didn’t let us down. While the Redmi Note 3 has some of themarkings of a budget Android phone - it’s on thechunky side at 8.65mm (although this is moreimpressive than it is disappointing given the huge4000mAh battery inside), plus there’s the rear-mounted speaker and now outdated Micro-USBport – it looks good enough to take on the iPhonein the design stakes. It’s certainly the best-lookingbudget Android we’ve ever seen. Despite housing both a large 5.5in screen anda high-capacity battery (apparently achieved usinga 690Wh/L high-density cell), this Xiaomi phabletfeels fantastic in the hand. It’s reassuringly weightywithout being heavy at 164g (only 4g more thanthe plastic Note 2), and rounded edges on the rearmake it feel smaller than it is. On occasion you ISSUE 22 • ANDROID ADVISOR  49

might want to use it in both hands, but we didn’t have trouble reaching to the far corner of the screen with a thumb when required. As with the Mi 4C there’s also an easily accessible one-handed mode that lets you shrink down the contents of the screen to 4.5-, 4- or even 3.5in. The gold metal shell is sandblasted to a smooth- to-the-touch but matte-effect finish. This contrasts nicely with the shiny polished edging seen around the screen, fingerprint scanner, camera and flash, and even the shiny Mi logo on the rear. It really is a premium-looking smartphone. The fingerprint scanner mounted on the rear is perfectly positioned in terms of how you hold your phone. Usefully, it can wake and unlock the screen with a single touch, and Xiaomi’s claims of it recognising your fingerprint in 0.3 seconds rang true in our tests. We mentioned that the speaker is also rear-facing, which is usually a no-no, but a small protrusion below raises the phone ever so slightly from a flat surface such as a desk and allows sound to escape. With the exception of this bump all components lie flush with the case, including the 13Mp camera – we’re not overly keen on the way many of today’s50  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 22